MLB Coming to Apple Immersive, Apple Upgrade & Apple Vision Pro?, Google’s Ask Maps Gets Agentic Food Ordering

For today’s article, I combined what initially was going to be two to even three articles into one longer article. Let’s jump right in.

MLB Coming to Apple Immersive

In a press release unveiling the September schedule for its “Friday Night Baseball” broadcasts, Apple announced the following:

“For the first time, baseball fans can take in all the action of “Friday Night Baseball” live in Apple Immersive on Apple Vision Pro, leveraging 3D video recorded in 8K with a 180-degree field of view. On August 28, viewers with Vision Pro will experience the iconic Red Sox vs. Yankees rivalry from unique camera angles that place viewers right in the game, immersed in the drama of each at-bat, the celebrations in the dugout after a big hit, close plays at the outfield wall, and more.

The experience features bespoke commentary from Paul Severino (play-by-play), Xavier Scruggs (analyst), and Michelle Margaux (sideline reporter); dedicated replays; and an immersive graphics package that includes team lineups and stats floating in the viewer’s space. During breaks in the action, the broadcast remains live, immersing viewers in the stadium experience from all angles as ambisonic microphones capture sounds in Spatial Audio.”

While we had good reason to assume Apple was going to expand its live sports offering in Apple Immersive, this MLB news still comes as a welcome surprise. Apple will have broadcast, within just a few months of each other, both NBA and MLB games live in Apple Immersive. That was not on too many people’s radar last year at this time.

Based on Apple’s description, the four “Friday Night Baseball” games that will be broadcast live in Apple Immersive will utilize a similar playbook that was used to air the LA Lakers games in Apple Immersive earlier this year.

Instead of relying on one stationary immersive camera, which can lead to an underwhelming experience for the viewer, the baseball games shown in Apple Immersive will resemble a regularly televised broadcast with a production control room cutting to various (immersive) camera angles based on game play. In lieu of ad breaks, the viewer will be kept in broadcast by being shown different camera angles and live content from within the stadium. The concept worked decently well with the Lakers games. While it was difficult to see some parts of the arena, some extracurricular coverage off the court was a nice supplement.

Having a production control room cut to various camera angles makes plenty of sense and leads to an all-around enjoyable immersive viewing experience.

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